Princess Anne has arrived in Wellington

Princess Anne has arrived in Wellington after her trip to New Zealand saw some last-minute schedule changes due to Cyclone Gabrielle.

The Princess Royal was pictured visiting the National Crisis Management Centre - the Beehive Bunker - today to meet with crisis response staff dealing with the impacts of the cyclone.

The royal and her husband Sir Timothy Laurence left the UK on Sunday night local time and travelled to Aotearoa for a four-day trip, initially planned to mark the NZ Army’s Royal New Zealand Corps of Signals’ 100th-anniversary celebrations at Palmerston North’s Linton Military Camp.

But they have arrived amid the cyclone that’s being described as the country’s most significant weather event in a century, battering the North Island with flooding, landslides, power cuts and destruction.

Anne was due to arrive at Linton Military Camp today to visit the Army contingent, of which she is colonel-in-chief.

But the New Zealand Defence Force has said in a statement that the engagement will no longer take place as the Army’s focus is on the storm response.

Anne is set to lay a wreath at the Pukeahu National War Memorial in Wellington today and will visit the Riding for the Disabled in Porirua, as she is a patron.

The National War Memorial’s Hall of Memories is reopening for Anne’s visit after being closed for three years due to earthquake risk.

The royal heads to Christchurch on Friday.

Princess Anne last visited New Zealand in 2010.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission.